Batarangs: A Collection of Short Stories
by Astro Latte
Summary: A collection of short stories and vignettes from the streets of Gotham. New chapters added at my leisure.
1. Obligation

**Obligation**

His finger was a barely off the doorbell before the fastest man alive answered the door. Seeing his best friend, Dick smiled but before he could offer any sort of greeting, Wally was already a slapping his shoulder and ushering him inside.

"Man are you a sight for sore eyes," the redheaded man chuckled, closing the front door behind him. "And here I thought the most I'd see from you was if there was ever another apocalypse."

"I was in the neighborhood," Dick said with a shrug, looking around the small house the West family currently resided.

While both Linda and Wally found themselves accustomed to living the small quarters of an urban apartment, after the twins were born the family moved to the suburbs resting right outside Central City. In the many correspondence Dick had shared with Wally over the years, Wally had always mentioned that while he sometimes missed the liveness of Central City, the ability to play tag in the big backyard with his children made the move worthwhile.

"Well it's always great to see you, man," Wally said with a grin, "Crummy timing though, you just missed Linda. She had to go out on some business, so it's just me and the kids today. Do you want me to get you anything? Water? Soda?"

"I'll have some so-" Wally had already zipped to the refrigerator, gotten the drink, and placed the can Dick's hand before he finished speaking. "da...yeah thanks, man."

"Hey kids," Wally turned to the twins who were engrossed in some fighting video game flashing on the television int the living room. "Say hi to your uncle Dick."

Both Jai and Iris answered with a quick, "Hello Uncle Dick," before going back to their game.

"What are they playing anyway?" Dick asked as he watched two characters on the screen brutally punch, kick and blast energy beams at another.

"Road Battler IV," Wally said sitting on the sofa and offering his best friend a seat next to him. "It's a fighting game. You see that score on the top of the screen?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty high number. Is that the game's high score?"

"You betcha, and it was made by your's truly."

"That's um...impressive."

"What can I say?" Wally grinned as he casually flipped open the lid to his soda can. "I just beat the snot out of baddies in the real world and the virtual world."

"Looks like you're not the only one," Dick said, as he pointed to the television screen.

Sometime during their conversation, Iris's character had harnessed some sort of ridiculous large energy bomb made of dragons, lions and other violent looking animals. The bomb blasted at Jai's character, plummeting it to death in a wave of blood and gore. The attack seemed to unlock some sort of bonus of the game, because the score counter above Iris's character was increasing quickly, breaking the high score previously held by her father.

"NO FAIR!" Wally and Jai screamed in unison, turning to Iris in fury. "YOU CHEATED!"

"What can I say?" The girl grinned, flipping her red ponytail over her shoulder. "I just beat the snot out of baddies in the real world and the virtual world."

"Pssh...kids," Wally grumbled as he shook his head and noticed Dick's pensive face. He turned back to his children who were currently plunged deep into what seemed to be an epic rematch. "Hey, your uncle and me are gonna go outside for a few minutes. Will you two promise not to kill each other while we're gone?"

"Sure," the twins said in unison as they mashed various controller buttons.

Wally made his way off the coach, motioning Dick to follow him outside to the front porch of the house. He leaned over the banister leisurely as Dick shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

"As much as I love seeing your handsome face, I have a feeling you didn't drop by today because you wanted to see mine."

Dick remained silent, suddenly finding his shoes to be quite interesting.

"I heard about what happened to Bruce," Wally began, hoping to break Dick's silence. "I'm sorry, Dick...we all are. "

"Thank you," Dick said softly, not knowing what else to say. He suddenly felt Wally's hand on his shoulder, quickly grabbing Dick's attention.

"Listen," his tone suddenly grew serious. "You've always lead the Titians to victory when we were younger, and were always there for all of us when we needed you. You were the best man at my wedding, and have always been the guy I could turn to if I was ever feeling weak. You're my best friend, Dick. I know there's something deeper bothering you and I want you to know that you can trust me now, like I've always trusted you."

The two men stood in silence, though both were aware of the giant pink elephant joining them on the porch, it seemed that Dick had a harder time acknowledging its existence. Wally watched as his friend shuffled his feet like a child and gazed off into the distance.

"Wally," Dick gritted his teeth, swallowing hard as he looked at his best friend in the eyes. "Was it...was it easy for you to take on Barry's role after he died?"

"Duh, I just had to think about all the popularity, the fame, and the chicks I would get." Wally said with a smirk as Dick rolled his eyes.

"It's always a joke with you, isn't it?"

"To be honest," Wally said, ignoring the comment. "It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. At first, I took it up because I wanted to grow up. There was no point in being Kid Flash if the older Flash wasn't around anymore. The more I did it though the more I began to doubt myself because it suddenly hit me that I was trying to fit my feet into some pretty large shoes. I had this mental block that ended up even effecting my speed. I was so freaked out about not only failing in comparison to Barry, but to even be better than him.  
"It took a pretty brutal fight for me to overcome that fear. It was like a rock hitting me in the back of the head, and I realized something really important. If I didn't work to my full potential to be a better Flash, someone else could surpass me who I knew didn't deserve to wear the old red and yellow. I had to beat those people by being my best without the fear and the doubt. By doing that I was not only doing Barry's memory justice, I was also doing what was best for the entire world."

The silence returned again as Dick allowed his friend's words to sink in. It wasn't often that Wally made comments that weren't smart alecky.

"I just don't want to fail anybody, Wally," Dick sighed and looked towards the sleepy streets of suburbia. "It's as if Bruce left me this huge house of cards, and I'm afraid to touch any of it because it may collapse."

"Then it's time for you to look inside yourself and ask yourself a simple question," Wally said looking at his friend with a warm smile.

"What's that?"

"Are you afraid to knock down the house of cards because you don't want anyone to forget that Bruce built it, or are you afraid to knock down the house of cards because you don't think you can build it as high as Bruce did?"


	2. Meeting

**Meeting**

Tim couldn't help but feel groan as he flew from Lucius Fox's rooftop where he had just dropped off the business tycoon's daughter moments ago. Thinking of Tam's tear-filled eyes as she thanked him repeatedly for saving her life, and bringing her back Gotham.

"It's alright...I should be the one apologizing to you for getting you into the whole mess to begin with." He had said as she climbed out from the two person jet. "You were just trying to bring me back...home."

"Yeah, there's nothing like it," she then leaned back into the jet, so that her lips were mere inches from his. "Oh, and let's keep that little kiss I gave you...between us. You're a good guy, but the whole facing off against assassins thing...isn't my thing."

She lifted her pinky finger in the air.

"Only if you forget about the whole secret identity thing," he had replied, wrapping his own pinky around her in a childish truce.

"What secret identity thing?" she said with a smile, as she closed the door to the jet, "Goodbye...Red Robin."

How she had said the name for some reason had made Tim feel awful. He knew it wasn't Tam's intent to cause him discomfort, but being called by his new name reminded him just as far away he was from the days of being Robin to Bruce's Batman.

He couldn't let the feeling consume him much longer, he had to get to the bunker and tell Dick what he had learned. Bruce was going to be coming back, and Dick would go back to being Nightwing, and he would go back to his old job...and hopefully Damian could be stuffed into a box and shipped right off the face of the earth.

Just as Tim was enjoying his vision of stuffing the brat into a small box, he noticed a girl swinging from the rooftops dawning what appeared to be Bat-ears. Turning his attention to his computer, he scanned the area and the jet's sensors showed him a closer image of the swinging girl and noticed something strange. She was wearing more than Bat-ears, for one thing, she was dawning what looked like a Batgirl costume.

But the girl wasn't Cassandra Cain.

"Computer," he called. "Set to auto pilot, stealth mode, and course to the Bat Bunker underneath Wayne Tower."

"Auto pilot, activated. Stealth mode, activated. Course change, complete."

Manually, Tim opened the hatch of the jet, and leap head-first out of the vehicle. As he leap he heard the computer's automated voice response, "Hatch now closing...have a good flight, Red Robin."

He didn't remember changing that, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he free fell. Launching a grapple, he hooked to the ledge of a nearby building and swung along the rooftops adjacent to the girl in the Batgirl suit.

"Nice night for a stroll isn't it?" she called to him, and smiled. "I didn't know any other capes were on patrol tonight."

Silently he swung from his line, throwing a shuriken as her line broke, she fell with a scream into a large Gotham City dumpster as he landed with pose on the fire escape above.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" she screamed as climbed out of the messy waste. Seeing the crouching caped and cowled man above her.

"I'll ask the questions around here," Tim grunted, hopefully making his voice sound more threatening. "Who are you?"

"I'm Batgirl," she groaned as she lifted herself out from the trash and onto the pavement. "I'm taking from the bird on your chest you're Captain Coc-"

"What happened to the other Batgirl?"

"I'm gonna take it from fact that this conversation has been going on for two minutes and the only damage I've sustained is smelling like garbage that you're a good guy," She placed her hands on her hips with a smirk, "Either that or you think I'm hot."

"Answer the question, or you'll have more to complain about then just smelling bad."

"She quit, so I took up the job. Now who are you?"

He paused for a moment before answering, "Red Robin."

_"Did he just say Red Robin?!"_

"One second," Batgirl motioned him with her gloved finger, placing one to her ear. "Yeah O, he said that. Why am I in trouble or something?"

_"No, but there's something you should know..."_

"Wait, did you just say O?" Tim heart raced, so this girl was legit. "Do you mean Oracle?"

"I said one second, little bird, I'm speaking with someone." She went back to her conversation. "What is it?"

Back at the bunker, Barbara Gordon or better known as Oracle, typed frantically on the keys of her massive computer. Breaching security, she managed to get through the frequency on Tim's communicator.

_"Red Robin?_" Tim heard in his cowl. _"Is that you?_"

"Oracle!" he called, happy but also quite annoyed that she managed to get onto his frequency so easily.

"No, I'm Batgirl," the girl next to the dumper said, pointing to herself. Her end of the communicator now dead.

_"No, he's talking to me."_ Oracle said, coming back onto her line.

"Why are you talking to him for?"

_"Because it's Tim!"_

The girl stood frozen, "No way..."

Tim looked down at the new Batgirl, "Oracle, is this girl really your new Batgirl?"

"Yes, after Bruce...passed...Cassandra left and Steph took the up the role."

"Wait...by Steph you mean..."

_"Stephanie Brown."_

Swallowing hard, Stephanie pulled back her mask revealing her face and long blonde hair. She still couldn't form words, but she wanted him to see her and know that she was the Batgirl everyone was talking about.

Tim couldn't believe his eyes, and he pulled back his cowl to make sure the blonde in front of him really was Stephanie Brown.

They stood like that for what seemed like hours, both trying to figure out what to say in a moment that left them both speechless.


	3. Evidence

**Evidence**

It was really hard to march off in an angry fit when you couldn't use your legs. The best Barbara could do was roll away with a huff and hopefully the path would go downhill to give herself a little speed. However, eventually she felt the hands on her handles and was forced to a stop.

"Babs," she heard Dick say. "This is stupid."

He was right...it was stupid to try to run away from Batman. She felt him spin her around to face him and averted her eyes to avoid his glare.

She remained quiet.

"Don't be stubborn," he demanded. "I get enough of that attitude with Damian."

"You were right," she said, looking at him now but still frowning. "This is stupid."

"Talk to me, Barbara."

"What is there to talk about anymore," she said exasperated. "We go through this every time you feel overwhelmed or whenever you have to save the universe from some impending doom. You tell me you love me, I fall for it, you go to give me a ring, and then some meta-human-super-villain pops in and it's all forgotten."

"I don't forget," He said taking her hand in his. "I never forget."

"I hope you never told Kory that," she snapped. "I don't forget things either, Dick."

"Two words," he said, face stern holding up two fingers. "Jason. Bard."

"You can't count that!" She gritted her teeth. "You were with Kory when I was with him And I...I..."

She took her glasses off, wiping the tears from her eyes before they could fall. He took both her hands in one hand and brushed her tears away with his other. She didn't fight him.

"I was only with him...because I couldn't be with you." She sighed as he continued to stroke her cheek. "I know Bruce's death has effected you so much. You're wearing his cowl, raising his sociopathic son, and trying to continue his mission to cleanse a world so covered in filth. Even I'm working so hard to help my father pick up Gotham after those black lanterns, and working to make sure Stephanie makes it home in one piece every night. We couldn't make it work when it was just Oracle and Nightwing...what makes you think it'll be different now with Oracle and Batman?"

He pushed her lips to his and kissed her, and she couldn't resist him, she never could. It didn't last long though, with him pulling away slowly and resting his forehead against hers. They both savored the warmth.

"I've loved you since I was the boy wonder running around without pants when we were the dynamic duo. We're both spinning a thousand plates, but when aren't we? If it's not fighting crime in Gotham, we're killing black lanterns, and if it's not that we're going off to save the world from some ultimate evil. I want stability during all this, and we've been always been an almost, but never a definite. I want this, Babs," he ran a finger down her cheek, along her neck, and hooped to the chain hid beneath her shirt. He pulled it up revealing the engagement ring he had given her strung along the chain. "And I know you want this too."

"How did you know that was there?" she asked dumbfounded.

"I'm the new Batman," he smirked. "The world's greatest detective.


End file.
